TechwareLabs Thinking Outside the Cube

AXLE is proud to release the new series of GeForce® GT 220 and GeForce® 210 which bring you a new definition of HD entertainment with affordable price.

Superior Graphics Processing

Both the latest games and 3D applications have stricter requirement on the graphic performance than before and the integrated graphics solution is not powerful enough. AXLE GeForce® GT 220 packs 48 processing cores into

a compact power efficient design delivering up to 30x the performance* of Intel integrated solutions.

Powerful Video Editing / Playback

Get all the video processing power that your digital lifestyle requires. Clean up home video 4x faster and post it on Facebook with the AXLE GeForce® GT 220 or GeForce® 210. Convert your video and put it on your iPod in minutes instead of hours** or make your DVDs look like HD. AXLE GeForce® GT220 and GeForce® 210 can playback any Blu Ray Movie with any modern CPU.

Premium Windows 7 Experience

Graphics processing units (GPUs) are an essential element of today’s PCs, enabling more visual and more I nteractive experiences. As a leader in visual computing and the inventor of the GeForce® GPU, NVIDIA® worked closely with Microsoft® on the development of Windows 7 to ensure that its GPUs take full advantage of the great new features and functionality. If you use your PC to enhance photos, watch or edit videos, play games, or if you simply desire a fast and efficient graphical interface, AXLE GeForce® GT220 and GeForce® 210 offers a premium experience with Windows 7.

Applying the new 40nm GPU technology from NVIDIA®, AXLE GeForce® GT 220 and AXLE GeForce® 210 deliver a more advanced level of performance than the predecessors 9500GT and 8400GS. In terms of the number of shaders, GT220 has 50% more than that of 9500GT whereas G210 has 100% more than that of 8400GS. AXLE GeForce® GT 220 comes with 2 versions of memory, 128-bit 1.6GHz DDR3 memory and 800MHz DDR2 memory. The card features NVIDIA® Unified Architecture, NVIDIA CUDA™ technology, Microsoft® Windows 7 support, NVIDIA® PureVideo® HD and NVIDIA PhysX® technologies, HDMI ouput with HD 1080p display support, PCI Express 2.0 support and Microsoft DirectX 10.1 and Shader Model 4.1 support.

AXLE GeForce® 210, on the other hand, is assembled with 64-bit 1.2GHz DDR3 memory or 800 MHZ DDR2 memory. The additional features embrace NVIDIA® Unified Architecture, NVIDIA® CUDA™ Parallel Computing Architecture, NVIDIA® PureVideo® HD and NVIDIA PhysX® technologies, HDMI output with HD 1080p display support, Microsoft DirectX 10.1 and Shader Model 4.1 support and PCI Express 2.0 support.

For detailed product information, please visit www.axle3d.com.

TechwareLabs Daily News

• ASUS Maximus II Gene Motherboard @ Hothardware
• Western Workstation & Server CPU Comparison Guide Rev. 3.3 @ TechARP

• Xigmatek Balder SD1283 HDT CPU Cooler @ Tweaktown
• Antec Skeleton Open Air Computer Case Review @ Tweaknews
• AMD Athlon II X4 630 Extreme Overclocking with LN2 @ Tweaktown

Ghost Detecting Gadgets that Confirm your Sanity

With Halloween coming up this weekend, it seemed like the perfect time to discuss a problem far too many of us face—homes that are haunted by evil spirits.These gadgets can confirm you are not completely crazy.

What does it say about the sanity of anyone owning more than one of these gadgets?

Check out the article here.

Ten Most Geekiest Halloween Costumes Explored @ Engadget

—clearly, Halloween is dominated by nerds far too old to trick-or-treat. It was also clear that mdg357’s homemade Iron Man suit was more than deserving of the free pizza.

The old school Megatron dude would have won it for me, strictly on style points.

Facebook Awarded $711 Million In Anti-Spam Case

“Facebook is on a never-before-seen legal rampage against high profile internet spammers. Today Facebook was awarded yet another nine-figure settlement, this time for over $700 million. Facebook also has a criminal contempt case on Wallace, which means a high likelihood of prison, a big win for the internet and a milestone in cyber law. ‘The record demonstrates that Wallace willfully violated the statutes in question with blatant disregard for the rights of Facebook and the thousands of Facebook users whose accounts were compromised by his conduct,’ Jeremy Fogel wrote in his judgment order, which permanently prohibits Wallace from accessing the Facebook Web site or creating a Facebook account, among other restrictions.”

I don’t understand why the courts impose such rubbish awards, they have to know there’s not a snowballs chance in hell that Facebook will ever see the cash.  It would be far more productive to take a realistic assessment of the damage and penalize the individual in both a cash and sentence that would be more meaningful. This guy will simply declare bankruptcy and restart another spam campaign.  Jail time for the SPAMMERS!

New Threats Against Pirate Bay Owners

In what is shaping up to be the never ending saga of The Pirate Bay it seems the Swedish courts are trying a new tactic.  Prosecute the founders and ban them from running their own site. Uum yeah, neither they, nor the website is even in Sweden anymore.  But hey MPAA and RIAA don’t give up yet. . . you could always hire a hitman for the job.

“The Pirate Bay should be closed, and if it isn’t, two of the founders will each have to pay a fine of 500,000 Swedish kronor (US$71,500), according to a verdict in the Stockholm District Court. This time it’s Fredrik Neij and Gottfrid Svartholm Warg who are in the court’s crosshairs. They have been forced to shut down the site or pay the fine. The court has stated that the site will have to remain closed unless Neij and Warg are exonerated on another similar case they’re involved in, which is now on appeal.”

Federal Judge Says E-mail Not Protected By 4th Amendment

“In the case In re United States, Judge Mosman ruled that there is no constitutional requirement of notice to the account holder because the Fourth Amendment does not apply to e-mails under the third-party doctrine. ‘When a person uses the Internet, the user’s actions are no longer in his or her physical home; in fact he or she is not truly acting in private space at all. The user is generally accessing the Internet with a network account and computer storage owned by an ISP like Comcast or NetZero. All materials stored online, whether they are e-mails or remotely stored documents, are physically stored on servers owned by an ISP. When we send an e-mail or instant message from the comfort of our own homes to a friend across town the message travels from our computer to computers owned by a third party, the ISP, before being delivered to the intended recipient. Thus ‘private’ information is actually being held by third-party private companies.”"

UPDATE:

I blogged yesterday about a new opinion on e-mail and the Fourth Amendment. I received a few requests for a copy of the opinion, so I formatted a version of it and have posted it here.

In the course of re-reading the opinion to post it, I recognized that I was misreading a key part of the opinion. As I read it now, Judge Mosman does not conclude that e-mails are not protected by the Fourth Amendment. Rather, he assumes for the sake of argument that the e-mails are protected (see bottom of page 12), but then concludes that the third party context negates an argument for Fourth Amendment notice to the subscribers. I missed this because the reasoning closely resembles the argument for saying that the Fourth Amendment doesn’t apply at all, and I didn’t read the earlier section closely enough. That’s obviously a much narrower position, and I apologize for misunderstanding it the first time in the quick skim I gave it. Sorry about that: The fault is entirely mine.

This could be very bad, guess its time to fire up the digital shredder and start the process of “getting off the grid” before big brother comes calling.

Windows 7 Officially Launched

The news of the day and theme for probably the next few weeks has to be the official launch of Microsoft Windows 7.  We have played with the Beta, the RC, and now the final RTM for some weeks now and are happy to say we can fully endorse Windows 7 over pretty much every other OS on the market. Windows 7 is the best OS yet to leave the doors in Redmond and we can’t wait till it hits shelves all over.

Check out the new Windows 7 Here.

And to answer the number one question filling up my inbox for the last few weeks; Yes Windows 7 is faster. Wanna See?

Stay Tuned for our Windows 7 Launch Party Tonight!

Reviews and News From Around the Web:

Western Digital WD TV Live HD Media Player Video Review @ Tweaktown

CyberPower Rolls Out New Intel Core i5/i7 Gaming Rigs With DX11 and Windows 7

Thermaltake Element G Computer Case Review @ Tweaknews (see our review here)

Glacialtech UFO V51 Heatsink @ TechwareLabs

XFX Girl Audition

Let me hear her say “Hard Drive”.  She has my vote!

Remember if you want to be considered you can sign up here.

XFX Girl

News and Reviews from Around the Web:

ASUS P7P55D EVO P55 LGA1156 Motherboard Review @ Benchmark Reviews

A Guide to Seven Video Games that Shaped Mainstream Society @ Futurelooks

Skooba Launches $6000 Search for the Ultimate Techie @ Skooba

AMD Athlon 2 X2 245 CPU Review @ RBMods

Droid Take on Apple in Humorous Commercial

I always knew there was something wrong with the folks in the UK. This next video just proves my suspicion. Without further ado this comes to you from the WTH files:

Shiny Gadget Roundup:

From the rule of “why have one when you can have two” comes:

Spring Design Announces Dual-Screen Google Android-based E-book Reader, Hyperlinking Text with Multimedia

FREMONT, CA – OCTOBER 19, 2009– Spring Design today announced Alex™, the first e-book based on Google Android featuring full browser capabilities and patented dual screen interaction technology, the Duet Navigator™. The Alex livens up text with multimedia links, adding a new dimension to the reading experience and potentially creating a whole new industry for secondary publications that supplement and enhance original text. Alex’s dual-screen display design brings together the efficiency of reading on a monochrome EPD (electronic paper display) screen while dynamic hyperlinked multimedia information and third party input on its secondary color LCD screen, actually an integrated Android mobile device, opens a rich world of Internet content to support the text on the main screen.

It does look cool though.

Ultra Products Unleashes X4 Modular Power Supplies

MIAMI, FL – October 19, 2009 – Ultra Products, the global leaders in PC component and peripheral design that pioneered the invention of the modular power supply, is proud to announce its latest lineup of PSUs, the X4.  With the below features, Ultra’s innovative series aims to satisfy even the most power hungry PC enthusiast…

X4 Power Supplies now available at all CompUSA retail stores, CompUSA.com, UltraProducts.com, TigerDirect.com, CircuitCity.com as well as other online retailers.

Ultra X4 1200W – MSRP $299.99
Ultra X4 1050W – MSRP $279.99
Ultra X4 850W – MSRP $249.99
Ultra X4 750W* – MSRP $149.99
Ultra X4 600W* – MSRP $119.99
Ultra X4 500W* – MSRP $99.99
Ultra X4 1600W** – MSRP $399.99

* Available Late October
** Available Late Q4’09

Looks like Ultra is not quite ready with their website listing of the X4 as the product is in their lineup but links to a blank page.

Reviews Around the Web:

Novatech Xplora E16 Home Laptop Video Review @ eTeknix.com

BlueAnt Supertooth 3 Bluetooth Handsfree Kit @ Benchmark Reviews

Gigabyte P55-UD6 Motherboard Review @ Motherboards.org

CoolAge Frozen Orb X120 Transform X120TF CPU Cooler @ Verdis Reviews

How to Install DirectX 11 on Windows Vista @ NGOHQ.com

Corner Shooting Gun Video

Why is that gun stuffed up the ass of a cat? Looks like the Israeli’s are taking cue’s from our video games.

Coincidence? I think not. I wonder which country will develop the BFG first?